The bill SB1613 amends Arizona Revised Statutes section 13-3884 to allow a private person to make an arrest when they witness someone committing theft of property from a retail store. This expands the current law, which only permits private arrests for misdemeanors that breach the peace or for felonies when the private person has reasonable grounds to believe a felony has been committed.

Additionally, the bill makes technical changes to the language of the law, including replacing gender-specific pronouns with gender-neutral terms. It also removes a proposed modification that would have classified theft of property or services valued at less than $2,000 as a class 6 felony, which was part of earlier discussions but is no longer included in the final version of the bill. The bill is set to become effective on the general effective date.

Statutes affected:
Introduced Version: 13-1802, 13-3884, 13-2305, 44-405, 13-2910.01, 31-233, 41-1604.07, 44-1641, 46-456, 46-451
Senate Engrossed Version: 13-3884